This invention relates to dolls, and more specifically, to a doll stand for supporting a doll to maintain it in a standing posture and for general display thereof.
Years ago, dolls were manufactured with flexible body members, as by being, for example, of stuffed fabric construction or else having a more or less rigid torso to which the legs were flexibly attached. In recent years, doll manufacture has seen the increasing use of plastics and synthetic materials to provide relatively rigid constructions allowing the legs and other body members to be re-oriented by the user and even to permit the doll to stand on its own feet. However, there recently has been extraordinary commerical success for a more primitive, fabric type of doll having the homespun, fundamentally homely character of earlier dolls which, because of the flexibility and general materials of constructions, are not ordinarily self-supporting and will not permit the legs to remain in a desired position. If the owner of the doll wishes to have the doll in a standing position, use must be made of a doll stand. For example, collectors prefer sometimes to have dolls in a standing position on shelves; and a child may prefer to have the doll stand as would a real person.
Heretofore, there have been proposed doll stands as in Williams U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,582 wherein there is proposed to provide a base for ground support having a pair of upright members extending in front of and behind the doll which, in the case of a skirted doll, would conceal portions of the stand.
Also, in Hall U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,632, there is proposed a doll stand having a base for floor support to which upright extends between the legs of the doll and with clamping members at the upper end of such vertical support for engaging body portions of the doll. Such constructions are representative of the prior art of doll stands, as to which the general concept goes back to the very early McCutchins U.S. Pat. No. 180,613, which issued in 1976, and Schilling U.S. Pat. No. 425,709, which issued in 1890.
All these prior art constructions support the doll by a base or members of the stand which contact the floor. An objection to such prior art constructions is that portions of the doll stand are visible and even unattractive and rob from the realism which would be obtained if the doll were able to stand in an apparent self-supporting manner.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a doll stand for use with a doll having intrinsically flexible characteristics and adapted for being attached to the doll whereby when so utilized the doll is caused to remain in an apparently self-supporting, standing, or other stiff-legged position.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a doll stand which is concealed from view when so attached to a doll, conducing to a realism for the doll which has not been heretofore available in prior art doll stand constructions. Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a doll stand which is very readily and easily attached to a doll, as by a young child and when so attached, will reliably remain affixed to the doll throughout rough play and usage, and is safe in use.
Briefly, a doll stand in accordance with the invention imparts to the doll an inflexible nature of the doll's legs relative to its torso. The stand includes left and right leg brace elements having a length at least as great as the dolls legs and carrying at their lower ends independent ankle-engaging means for independently engaging the doll's ankles. A waist-securement means is connected to the upper ends of said legs brace elements for mutual securement thereof to the waist of the doll and for maintaining the leg base elements along the doll's legs for preventing bending. Accordingly, the doll is maintained in a stiff-legged position for causing it to remain in a self-supported, standing orientation.
Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinbelow.